PHI LOS 0 P H Y . - Classic Works of Apologetics Online

438 Of ReligifltlJ EJfablishmcllts,
doors, but again~t those political principles, which,
however independent lliey rndY be of any article of
religious faith, the m,::mber~ of that communion are
found ill felct to h'-lld. Nor \vould ~he leg~slator
make religii\U~ te~lets the test of men)'!-. incJinatio!lS
towards the stat~, if he could di~cover any other that
was equaHy ~ertain and notoriou~. Thus, if the
members ci the Romi~h chtlrch, fOl- the most part_
adhere to the interests, or maintain the l~ight of a
foreign pretender to the crown of these kingdoms;
and if there be no way of distinguishing those who
,do {rom those who do not retain such dangerous
prejudices; goverfiment is well warranted in fencing
'Jut the whole sec~ from situations of trust and power.
But even in ttJis examnle, it is not to popery that
the laws objecc, but to popery as the mark of jacobitism;
an equivocal indeed and fallacious mark, but
the best, ai~d perhaps the only one~ that can be de ..
vised. But then it ~h()uld be remelnbered, that as
the connexion between popery and jacobiti~m, which
is the sole cause of su(.picion, and the sole justification
of those severe and jealous laws which have been
enacted against the profes~ors of· that religion, \l:a '*
accident?.i in its origin, so probably it will be tempo­
~ary ifl its duration; and that these restrictiollS
ought not to continue one day longer than some visible
dangpr renders them necessary to the preser\ya ..
Mon of public tranquillity.
After ail, it may be asked, why should not the Ie.
gislator direct his test against the political principles
ihemseives which he wishes to exclude, rather than
encounter them through the medium of religious tenets,
the only crime and the only danger of which
consist in their presumed alliance with the former?
\tVhy, for example, should a man be required to rep
llouce transubstantiation, before he be adnlitted t()
an office in the ~tate, when it might seem to be suf ..
ficiant that he abjure the pretender? There are but
two answers that can be given to the object!on
which this ques..tion. contains; first, that it is not
opinion~ which the laws fear, so much as inclinations ;